PayPal will make a US$750m strategic investment in MercadoLibre through a common stock investment. Dragoneer Investment Group will purchase an additional US$100m of Series A perpetual convertible preferred stock. MercadoLibre will offer an additional US$1b common stock as part of a US$1.8b+ total capital raise.
(Press Release) MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI), Latin America’s leading e-commerce technology company, today announced that it intends to offer approximately US$1 billion of common stock. MercadoLibre also intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to $150 million of additional shares of common stock. In addition, MercadoLibre has entered into an agreement pursuant to which PayPal has committed to make a $750 million strategic investment through the purchase of common stock. In a separate agreement, an affiliate of Dragoneer Investment Group has agreed to purchase $100 million of Series A perpetual convertible preferred stock. The PayPal and Dragoneer investments are contingent upon the closing of the public offering and are expected to close at the same time or shortly after the public offering.
“Over the past 20 years, we have heavily invested in developing the preeminent e-commerce and FinTech ecosystem in Latin America,” said Marcos Galperin, CEO of Mercado Libre. “We are excited to welcome these investments which will allow us to significantly accelerate our growth. We look forward to accelerating our leadership in ecommerce and payments and foster financial inclusion in Latin America as a result of our alliance with a global leader in the industry such as PayPal.”
The company intends to use the proceeds to continue expanding its e-commerce platform, to strengthen its logistics infrastructure, and to invest in solutions that further solidify the company’s position as a powerful provider of inclusive end-to-end financial technology and payments solutions.
“Digital commerce in Latin America is experiencing tremendous growth and MercadoLibre is well-positioned for continued leadership,” said Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal. “We’ve been impressed with the digital commerce and payments ecosystem Marcos and his team have built. We see great opportunities to integrate our respective capabilities to create unique and valuable payment experiences for our combined 500 million customers throughout the region and around the world.”
“Through its investments in FinTech, logistics, and customer experience, MercadoLibre is solidifying its leading market position in e-commerce and digital payments across Latin America, and we believe we are witnessing a major tipping point in the region,” said Marc Stad, Founder and Managing Partner of Dragoneer Investment Group, “We’ve known Marcos and his team for over a decade and are thrilled to partner with them through this high growth and transformative period.” During 2018, MercadoLibre sold more than 334 million items, amounting to over US$12 billion of gross merchandise volume (GMV). Payment transactions on MercadoPago, its payments business unit, increased by 70% during 2018, totaling 389 million transactions and US$18 billion of total payment volume (TPV).
Goldman Sachs is acting as sole financial advisor to MercadoLibre on the PayPal and Dragoneer investments, and Cleary Gottlieb is serving as MercadoLibre’s legal advisor. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint bookrunners on the public equity offering.